Some advice for bands and their PR

I’m not gonna pretend I know the ins and outs of the music industry, just because I run a metal blog. I don’t, but considering how hard the industry has fallen, it appears I’m not the only one.

But even though I may not be ‘in the know’ completely, in two years writing for this site, I have interacted with many PR people, and a lot of them have been helpful and polite, but a few of them have been downright unprofessional, and they were representing bigger bands. And I can’t help but wonder if musicians themselves know about it.

I actually prefer talking to musicians directly, two of my best interviews came from direct contact between myself and the musicians in question. Mainly because some press agents are simply not doing their job.

Now, I know, we’re not MetalSucks, maybe when you do run a big blog like that, things change. But in my opinion, professionalism is not about the size of the companies you work with, it’s about treating everyone with the same kind of respect, regardless of what they can do for you. I’ve been contacted by a bunch of shady companies offering us money for non-metal links and ads, or other similar stuff, and I never felt above answering with a very polite and mannered ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ Which brings me to:

Advice #1: Reply to your email inquiries.

Even if you want to say no, say no. Don’t just leave the email hanging. Whenever I don’t get a reply, I start wondering if the person forgot, or never got the email, or got it in the spam folder. So I’m inclined to send it again after a while. Why not answer back and give a ‘no’? I’m a big boy.

Advice #2: Keep your promises

Without giving any agency or band name away, let me tell you a small story. In our months of running this site, we wanted to interview a band we liked. The band is big enough to matter, but not ‘Metallica big,’ so we figured we had a shot, regardless of our being pretty much at the beginning of our journalistic journey.

We got in contact with their press agent, who seemed enthusiastic about it, and even told us which band member we were gonna interview. We put together a pretty great email interview for him, and then the PR lady kept postponing.

“Next month, right now they’re on tour.”
“Wait, after the holidays, late January at the latest”
“In a month or two”

Then she stopped responding altogether. Now, was that really professional, considering the band she’s representing has been around since the 80s and is pretty respected? Do the musicians know which people represent their interest? Which leads me to my third and final advice:

Advice #3: Start doing some of the grunt work yourselves

Gone are the days when musicians were these delicate flowers, with teams of people working for them, and no way of communicating with the fans. It’s 2012, labels go bankrupt, bands earn way less, and fans expect direct interaction. There is no reason for a musician not to try and handle a few things himself/herself.

This is because I am convinced musicians don’t know how many missed opportunities for decent interviews and exposure might be missed by unanswered emails or promises that never come true. And they pay these people. Giving an interview requires little time, and little to no effort, they’re worth it. Doesn’t matter if it’s Rolling Stone or just some site out there. Why not get it out there?

Final words…

I am not bitching or anything. I really do this for fun so I don’t care too much about about the business side of things. Plus I realize we make fun of a lot of bands, which might turn off some people. But I really do expect professionalism from the people representing signed bands that have been out for a while, and I’m not seeing it as often as I should. Does this affect the artist himself? I don’t know, but it definitely doesn’t help.

The old grannies in Aerosmith are still fighting over Idol

When Steven Tyler joined American Idol, a lot of people were angry. Including Kid Rock. But no one was as angry as Tyler’s own band mate, guitarist Joe Perry.

Now that Steven is out of American Idol, you’d think they’d be over it within the band, and would just focus on the music… Right? Wrong. Just watch the video above (at around 1:40).

If you think about it, most bands break up because of the tension between certain band members. Usually between the singer and the guitar player. I’m guessing that happens because no matter what, the singer will always be the most important member of the band in people’s eyes, so he will develop an ego and think he’s bigger than the band itself. Also, the guitarist always gets a lot of attention too, enough to get him an ego, but not as much as the singer, making him jealous and insecure.

As a misanthropic piece of shit myself, I can definitely understand calling it quits when you’re forced to work with people you dislike. At one point, no money, fame, or critical acclaim can make you stand certain assholes any longer, especially ones that act like little divas. So I’m not above hating someone, I definitely understand it. But at least be manly about it.

Get into a fist fight, challenge each other to gun duels, don’t just go running to the press to talk shit about the other guy. That’s what girls do, man. Just be a man and hate your band member and former friend like a man.

Now back to Aerosmith, it is pretty obvious that these guys cannot stand each other, but somehow they made it work. Which would be respectable, I guess, if they didn’t act like gossipy little brats. Not only do they dress and fight like chicks, but they both talk like they came straight out of “Mean Girls.”

- Like, I was totally like, feeling that American Idol gig and certain people were jealous of me
- Nuh-uh, girl, speak for yourself, I wasn’t jealous at all.
- Bitch!!!!

Grow up, guys. You’re older than the American dollar, time to stop these petty catfights in the press.

Making money in the name of charity

Maybe you’ve heard of the Kim Kardashian charity scandal (hardly a scandal, but suitable as an example) earlier this year. If you haven’t, and if you’re too lazy to check the link above, let me break it down to you. Kim Kardashian has sold some of her clothes via Ebay, under the banner “Charity Auction Supporting the Dream Foundation.” In the end only 10% were actually donated and she has kept the rest to herself.

What does this have to do with metal, and especially with Chuck Schuldiner (pictured above)? Well, we might think that something like that couldn’t happen in our perfect metal world. After all, metal musicians seem less money hungry than women who’re only famous for getting fucked by some R’n'B singer. But we’re wrong to assume that.

Beth Schuldiner, Chuck Schuldiner’s sister, has now spoken about the Sick Drummer Magazine/Death To All Tour debacle. Again, to break it down for you, Sick Drummer Magazine has helped organize the Death To All/Chuck Schuldiner tribute tour earlier this year. The earnings of said tour were partly supposed to go to the Sweet Relief charity, which had also helped Chuck when he was dying from cancer. Now Death’s management has claimed that the owners of Sick Drummer Magazine has not paid musicians, charity, booking agents, crews or Death’s management, Perseverance Holdings Ltd., despite the tour being a success.

Those are some very strong accusations and to further fuel the fire, Beth Schuldiner has now spoken out about it, and you can read that after the jump.

I’m not going to pick sides myself, because I hardly know all of the details of this story, but I’d like to point out how incredibly weak it is to make thousands of dollars in the name of charity, and then not even give 1% to that charity. Even Kim Kardashian knew better.

Rammstein also to headline Download 2013

If you love half naked chicks, dildos, ejaculation, the German language, metal, fire, rain, festivals, shit food and live in the UK, you’re in luck, Rammstein have been announced as the second headliner of the 2013 Download festival at the legendary Donington park.

As well as the above date, the band have officially announced the rest of their European festival dates for next summer. Check out the dates and venues below:

01 June Nijmegen, NET – FortaRock XL
04 June Warschau, POL – Impact
08 June Samara, RUS – Rock On Volga
13 June Interlaken, SWI – Greenfield Festival
14 June Nickelsdorg, AUT – Nova Rock
16 June Donington Park, UK – Download Festival
21-23 June Scheessel, GER – Hurricane
21-23 June Neuhausen, GER – Southside
06 July Werchter, BEL – Rock Werchter
01 August Wacken, GER – Wacken Open Air

Source: rammstein.de

Iron Maiden to headline Download 2013

In case you missed yesterday’s big news (where were you?), the mighty Maiden have announced they will be returning to Europe in 2013 to play a number of stadiums, arenas and festivals around the continent. The first date to be announced is at the UK’s Download Festival on Saturday June 15th, when Iron Maiden will return to the hallowed Donington Park to headline for a fifth time! (following 1988,1992, 2003 & 2007).

You can read more about it over at the official Iron Maiden site here.

Image credit: ironmaiden.com

Scott Ian and The Big Five

The Big Four is a subject dear to our hearts here at Dose of Metal. Why? Because all of us respect all four bands a lot, and all of us love at least two of them to death. So whenever we get the chance to talk about them, we do.

Before this website (and therefore, before The Big Four concerts happened), Guido and I wanted to start a Big Four fansite. Our goal was to just get fans together and stop arguing about which band is better, and just treat all four bands with the respect they deserve.

That didn’t happen, and instead we got this shitty metal blog running. However, I still kinda feel defensive about this subject, so here goes:

One of the biggest debates that was going on before the concerts and the DVD , was which bands should really be part of ‘The Big Four.’ Some argued that Metallica shouldn’t be there, since they haven’t been thrash metal for decades. Others wanted Exodus, Testament or Overkill in there. I could never understand why.The term was not up for debate, it wasn’t a chart or a top, it was just a monicker.

The Big Four is just a nickname, it is not supposed to be a factually accurate thesis on thrash metal. It’s a nickname given to four specific bands, period. If you want other thrash metal bands to be part of a celebration of thrash metal, that’s understandable, but call it something else. Call it, I don’t know, “Thrash Metal Celebration.” Do not call it The Big Four, because that name is about four bands, and four bands only.

Even though diehard thrash metalheads still debate the term from time to time, most people just accept the fact that it is what it is, now that there is a DVD out and everything. However, this interview with Scott Ian just made me remember all those useless arguments all over again.

Interviewer: I was wondering whether he thought there were any other bands that should have been considered for that title. Like, should it maybe have been the Big Five instead?

Scott Ian: The only other band really that it would make sense [to include] as far as American thrash-metal would be Exodus, because they were there right at the beginning as well. Their first album came out right at the same time as the rest of us. So I mean, to me, yes — if you were gonna add a fifth band, certainly I would think Exodus would be able to fill that slot very easily.

Scott is not responsible for this, he just gave a hypothetical answer to a very hypothetical question. It’s clearly the interviewer who just happens to wonder what band would be good for “The Big Five.” But what is that? The term doesn’t exist. No one ever thought of that nickname.  The nickname and the number four came because of the four bands we all know, not the other way around. It makes no sense to add anyone else to the nickname.

I know there are probably big Exodus fans out there who are gonna call me an asshole and teach me a lesson about what Exodus did for thrash metal. But that’s not the point, I’m not denying their legacy, I’m just saying the nickname “The Big Four” does not necessarily have to be the most accurate description of the origins of thrash metal. It’s simply a nickname that stuck, and it involves certain bands, and there should not be a debate over this. It’s like saying “Wacko Jacko” should not refer to Michael Jackson, but to Jack the Ripper, cause he was way ‘wacker’ than MJ.

The Big Four is Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. That’s it. There is no changing that. If you want to replace any of the bands with other thrash metal acts of the early 80s, you are entitled to do so, but it simply stops being ‘The Big Four.’ Just like operating on my testicles and removing both tumors would put an end to the ‘Big Four’ nickname I gave to my balls.

I heard Kerry King’s diet is also called The Big Four, because of the four supersized meals he gets at McDonald’s every day. It could just be a rumor I just made up though, so don’t take my word for it.

Source of the Scott Ian quote: Straight

Death Thrash… dead?

Death Thrash is a strange genre. It mixes Death Metal and Thrash Metal (duh), two very popular genres, but somehow nobody gives a crap about it. Sure, The Haunted were successful enough, but which other Death Thrash band can you name?

A genre that mixes two successful genres should have produced some amazing bands, right? I mean, it even sounds good on paper. Mixing Thrash with Death Metal just makes too much sense. Except The Haunted, no band of that style really got off the ground, but it produced some rough diamonds.

The band that I’ve always associated with Death Thrash, even more so than The Haunted, is Hatesphere. Not necessarily because I rate them higher (even though I do), but because they were the first band that introduced me to the style. I’ve seen them open for Chimaira and Dark Tranquillity in 2005, and they easily blew both of the following bands away. Why? Jacob Bredahl.

Jacob “Dr. J” Bredahl (pictured above) used to front Hatesphere from 2001 until 2007. He’s probably the most charismatic frontman I’ve ever witnessed live, and he sings with an intensity unmatched. He just seems to put everything into his vocals. Everytime, on every song.

I’ve been following Bredahl’s work since then. Be it with Hatesphere, Allhelluja or, most recently, The Kandidate (formerly called The Downward Candidate).

The Kandidate has just released the follow-up to their debut album, Until We Are Outnumbered, earlier this year, called Facing the Imminent Prospect of Death on Napalm Records. While The Kandidate doesn’t have the same effect on me than Hatesphere has had, it’s a band that I’d like to see more successful. But there obviously isn’t a big market for Death Thrash, or is there?

Back to Hatesphere. After Bredahl, and everyone else in the band, was fired by guitarist Peter “Pepe” Lyse Hansen, the band welcomed a completely different line-up. This line-up produced the flop To The Nines in 2009. At that time, I’ve lost interest in the band completely.

After dropping even more bandmembers, they’ve finally found a worthy replacement for Jacob Bredahl in Esben “Esse” Elnegaard Kjaer Hansen. Worthy because he sounds just like Bredahl, which he proved on The Great Bludgeoning (released in 2011 on Napalm Records).

I’ve actually just found out about The Great Bludgeoning a couple of weeks ago, which proves to me that there isn’t just no market for Death Thrash, there’s also barely any coverage of the scene. The album does come close to earlier material, and picks the band up from the ground after the boring To The Nines.

So with The Kandidate and Hatesphere, there are at least two great Death Thrash bands out there, that need more attention. Even as someone who really likes three bands of the scene (including The Haunted), I can’t even name a fourth one. I could name a few that could come close to being labelled Death Thrash (Tenet, Necroid, Untimely Demise, Maze of Torment, etc.), but they all seem to lean more to one of the two genres, rather than combining both.

Does that mean that Death Thrash is dead? Or does it just mean that I’m not informed enough? Was Death Thrash ever really alive to begin with? Or were there just a few bands who gave their best playing the best of both worlds?

I could name a factor for the commercial failure of the genre, with Metalcore’s rise, a genre that comes close to Death Thrash but without the more extreme parts. Further dissecting the if’s and when’s would take too long though. I’ll just leave you with the latest music video by The Kandidate, and a song from Hatesphere’s new album after the jump. Enjoy what’s left.

Image credit: Lykke Nielsen

Is Randy Blythe guilty?

The question everyone’s been asking since June is this: Is Randy Blythe really guilty? Well, let’s look at the facts:

Fact 1: I wasn’t there, so I don’t know.
Fact 2: You weren’t there, so you don’t know either.
Fact 3: You’re not a lawyer, so shut the fuck up.

I feel really sorry for both Randy and the fan who got killed, because this is unfortunate and no one wanted this to happen. But why are people everywhere throwing verdicts around? How do they know?

Here’s something very basic you need to understand about killing someone: If you start shoving your friend as a joke, and then at one point you push him harder, he falls down, hits his head and dies, you’re fucked. Sure, it’s not as bad as purposely killing a man, but it’s still involuntary manslaughter, and you’re still going to jail.

So you don’t have to be a cold-blooded murderer to be responsible for someone’s death, you just have to be really unlucky. So in Randy’s case, I have no idea what happened and if he’s responsible in any way, but some of his fans are just not being realistic about it.

My honest opinion, and this is coming from someone who is not a Lamb of God fan, Randy never intended to hurt anyone. I don’t know the guy, and again, I wasn’t there, but I am sure he just wanted to keep playing and finish his set. Unfortunately, security didn’t kick the kid out the first time he did that crap, so now look what happened.

Here’s what Phil Anselmo had to say on the matter:

I mean, you get on the stage at a metal show, you, nine times out of ten, are pretty much gonna jump off the front of the stage. He hits his head on the ground… I’m no lawyer, I’m no cop, but there’s this thing called ‘free will,’ and when you do something like that, that, to me, is accidental death.

I disagree with Phil, because security should not allow you to get on stage, period. As long as it’s so easy to hurt yourself or hurt anyone else while jumping into the crowd, as cool as it is, don’t do it. If you allow this type of behavior, then eventually bad luck might make an appearance.

It’s all fun and games until someone dies. I’m sorry it happened to Randy, but it could have happened to Pantera back in the early 90s, and it can happen to anyone who lets fans get on their stage and get crazy. The intensity of metal music is what we all love about it, and to share that intensity with the band and the other fans in the pit is great.

But as a musician you should simply be more careful, and ask your security to keep the fans on the floor. It’s also a good idea if you don’t get involved personally, and let security do their job. Just a thought though, again, I wasn’t there. And neither were most people commenting on this matter.

Image credit: Wikipedia
Phil quote credit: Blabbermouth

The lost art of not understanding shit

Seemingly everyone on the internet speaks, understands or at least knows a bit of English. I don’t have any stats to back this up, but I think it’s safe to say that the rise of the internet has helped a lot of people learning said language. I know it has helped me a lot.

I’m not a native English speaker myself, and besides the internet there is something else that has helped me improve my English. Music. “What the hell are these guys singing about?” was a question I’ve asked myself quite often when I was younger. So I grabbed a dictionary and started translating lyrics by bands I’ve loved. Pretty disappointing in some cases (note that I’ve grown up in the middle of the Nu Metal boom).

Improving my English, and understanding lyrics, made me lose something else though. The naivety of judging songs by their sound, rather than their lyrical content. Judging singers by their ability to sing, rather than their ability to write coherent sentences.

Obviously I’m judging singers by their singing qualities, or lack thereof, but it’s hard to take someone serious if he writes like Fred Durst, even if he sounded like Bruce Dickinson. Singing and writing belongs together, just like playing guitar and writing your own riffs. If you’re only doing half of these things yourself, I consider you less of a musician.

But back to my youth. When I was a teenager and I’ve loved a song, I naturally sang along to it. Even if I didn’t know what was actually being sung. I went with the sounds of words, rather than the actual words. This is difficult to understand for our English speaking readers, because you’re used to having music that is performed in English. English speaking music has been dominating the music world for decades. But think of it like this: if you really like a certain Rammstein song, you go to catch Rammstein live and they play that very song, you want to sing along to it. Even if you don’t understand German. So you just go with what you think is being sung and sing it. It doesn’t have to be right, it just has to sound right.

Losing that non-knowledge can be a downside, if you’re listening to badass music with dumbass lyrics. In trying to regain that naivety, I’ve started to listen to a bunch of bands with non-English lyrics, for example Asesino – who feature lyrics in Spanish. I know that Cristo Satánico (Asesino’s 2nd album) has some kind of badass storyline, and I know that ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ is about some guy fucking his girlfriend’s mother, but I don’t care.

I don’t care because I love Cristo Satánico for its music. I love it because Maldito X (Tony Campos – pictured above) has a killer voice for Deathgrind, something I’ve never expected when he was still the bassist for Static-X. I don’t give a crap what he’s singing about because it might disappoint me and make me appreciate the album less.

I’m happy with my naivety. I do appreciate good lyrics, but sometimes I just don’t want to listen to the words but rather the music as a whole. And that’s easier when you don’t speak the language.

And with that being said, click the more button for some ear candy. Enjoy your naivety.

Down don’t have time for a full album, and we don’t have the patience

I’m 26. What that means is that I’m still relatively young, but I’m not really young anymore. People who are my age can relate, and people who are older can probably remember. It’s a weird period of life, because you’re definitely not old, but you’re still way older than teenagers.

I talked to a girl the other day, and found out she was born in ’92. I couldn’t believe how mature she looked considering 1992, to me, feels like 10 years ago. But it’s not 10 years ago, is it? So am I turning into an old man? The same old man who doesn’t understand the new generation, and remembers how good it was in his day? The same old man I used to laugh at as a kid? Probably.

Here’s why: When I was a kid, CDs were relatively new to me, but my favorite band releasing an album meant I’d have to go to the store and find it. The search itself was part of the fun — Browsing through the letters, desperately finding the artwork I saw on TV, that was a quest, man. Then I’d get the album but I couldn’t listen to it until I got home. I mean, sure, I had a portable CD player (that was so high tech in those days), but I didn’t want to risk damaging the CD (it was a Sony Walkman, but for some reason I didn’t trust it with new discs) so I just waited until I got home.

So I get home and play the first song while I’m reading the booklet. Man, those were the days, right? I even touched on this subject in my interview with Megadeth’s Dave Ellefson.

But those days are over. Because today, people want things NOW. Not tomorrow, not when they get to the store, right now. This very instant. Doesn’t matter if they’re on their tablet taking a shit, or at work streaming porn on their smartphones. They want it all, and they want it right now. And without going into an obvious Queen pun, I have to mention that they expect it to be free, also. The world has changed, and even though I was down with technology since I was young, I still feel like a dinosaur.

How does this relate to Down and Mr. Anselmo? Read on to find out, although let’s not pretend like this bullshit rant is going anywhere.